The Midland Journal

Facts And Figures On Your Telephone
By EDWIN F. HILL

Telephone development in small towns and rural areas of America far exceeds that of all other countries of the world.

International telephone and telegraph statistics, compiled by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, as of the first of last year, show that American communities of less than 50,000 population average 11.8 telephones for each 100 people. This, the report shows, is greater than the total telephone density of any other country except Canada and even exceeds the number of telephone instruments in proportion to population in a majority of the large European cities.

The wide distribution of telephones throughout the United States is in marked contrast to the situation in foreign countries where telephone facilities are largely concentrated in the metropolitan areas.

The largest American cities have a greater number of telephones than are found in most European countries or in several entire continents. New York and Los Angeles together have more telephones than Great Britain. Chicago and Los Angeles together have more telephones than France, and New York alone has more telephones than all of France and Russia. The sum of the telephones in the two largest American cities is approximately equal to the combined telephones of Asia, Oceania and South America.

Obviously, there is still room for tremendous advances in telephone development in other countries before they approximate in extent the telephone facilities now available in the United States. Outside of North America, Europe is better equipped with telephones than any other continent, but the supply of European telephones is on a par with that prevailing in this country more than thirty years ago.

The practical interest which this survey of telephone development holds for Americans is emphasized by the fact that about 92 per cent of all the telephones in the world can be reached by telephone from any part of the United States.